The ruling marks a significant victory for RFE/RL amid growing concerns about U.S. funding cuts to independent media countering Russian disinformation.
U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV, a senior cardinal announced on May 8 to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, according to Vatican News.
According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), this marks the first time Ukrainian authorities have exposed a Hungarian military intelligence network conducting activities harmful to Ukraine.
George Simion, leader of Romania's far-right AUR party, who won the first round of the presidential election with nearly 40% of the vote, reiterated that if elected, he would oppose any further assistance to Ukraine and shift Romania’s focus inward.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed their countries' relationship on May 8, vowing to increase cooperation in all areas, including military ties.
"There is Turkey, which maintains channels of communication. And then, above all, there is the People's Republic of China, which, more than anyone else, has the means to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin come to the negotiating table and soften his demands," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on May 8.
The United States will be ready to "walk away" from the negotiating table if it does not see Russia making progress in negotiation to end the war, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on May 8.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico arrived in Moscow on May 9 to celebrate Victory Day, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
US President Donald Trump on May 8 called for a "30-day unconditional ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia. Writing on Truth Social, Trump expressed his hope for "an acceptable ceasefire," with both countries "held accountable for respecting the sanctity of... direct negotiations."
President Volodymyr Zelensky had a "constructive" phone call with United States President Donald Trump on May 8, discussing the war, continued pressure on Russia, and a potential ceasefire.
The survey, conducted between April 24 and May 4, shows that 56.9% of respondents would not be willing to compromise on either territorial integrity or Ukraine’s pro-Western direction in any potential talks with Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a televised address to the nation at the Kremlin in Moscow on Nov. 21, 2024. Putin said that the country's forces hit Ukraine with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
A declassified U.S. intelligence memorandum sheds light on Russia's suspected assassination attempts of political adversaries abroad, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 23.
The intelligence assessment, which Bloomberg obtained through the U.S.'s Freedom of Information Act, details how U.S. intelligence believed in 2016 that suspected Kremlin-ordered assassinations abroad would likely persist.
The document includes well-known cases, such as the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB agent who defected to the U.K.
Litvinenko accused Putin's regime of a number of crimes, including that the FSB was allegedly behind the 1999 bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities that were originally blamed on Chechen rebels. Among other things, he also said Putin and his circle had ties to organized crime.
Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning in 2006 and blamed Putin before his death. British intelligence concluded that Russia likely carried out the assassination, according to the U.S. intelligence memorandum.
The document also lists former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who was poisoned on the campaign trail during the 2004 presidential election, leaving his face temporarily disfigured. It does not purport that Moscow was directly involved in his poisoning but states that his supporters believe Moscow was behind it.
Yushchenko, a pro-West politician, barely survived the poisoning during his election campaign in which he faced off against pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, backed by Putin.
Following the poising, Yushchenko went on to lead the Orange Revolution, a public uprising sparked by mass election fraud that saw Yanukovych being declared the winner. Following a new round of voting Yushchenko won and became Ukraine's third president only to lose to Yanukovych in the next election.
Bloomberg noted that, although the document was dated, it showed that the U.S. believed Moscow's willingness to target people abroad—ranging from Caucasus rebels to intelligence defectors and dissidents.
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Kate Tsurkan
